Everyone knew what was meant when someone said that "the society says this/that."
Yes, you can tell the relative age of a publisher by whether they still say "the society says this/that" or they say today's phrase "the organisation says this/that", or worse, "Jehovah's organisation says this/that" when talking about instructions coming down from higher levels, whether in talks, publications or letters.
The modern-day org have been very successful among the R&F at directly linking God's name to "the organisation" in individual's minds. I can't recall the previous JWs using phrases that linked the two so closely.
There is also the phrase "Jehovah's people" which was used a lot and still is sometimes, but that was usually broader, meaning anyone who was a JW, not just the senior hierarchy.